August 2007: Sculptor Antony Gormley released this mock-up of his proposed 48-metre high Dublin Docklands sculpture. The artist was selected from a shortlist of six after an international competition for the landmark public art project for the docklands. Costing an estimated ?1.6 million, the sculpture is likely to be located in the river Liffey close to the Seán O'Casey footbridge, pending planning permission.

The London-born artist is perhaps most famous for his Angel of the North, a massive sculpture that put Newcastle on the international artistic map. According to the DDDA, the work will be "a signpost for the realignment of Dublin's epicentre eastwards". The sculpture "will read as a drawing against the changing light of the sky, within an area of Dublin that has low-rise buildings on both sides of the river".

Mr Gormley has evolved this proposal from Field, a vast installation of 35,000 sculptures last seen in Dublin in 1993 at his show in Imma, where tiny individual clay objects looked up at the viewer. This dynamic has been reversed in this proposal for Dublin, where the pedestrians on the street will be "Lilliputians" relative to the sculpture.

The docklands authority will apply for planning permission at the end of the 2007 and, if successful, construction will begin in 2008 and take about eight months to complete.

It has been pointed out that from this angle, he (and it appears to be a he) appears to be urinating!

Antony_Gormley_Liffey_Colossus.jpg - 397 x 333 - (115KB)

Welcome to the (small) section dedicated to what's been proposed in various fora for the Liffey' - More links are welcome. Submit ideas to:
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